Taiwan 2014/15 (Part I)

It has been two months since I've last touched this space. Actually I did ponder whether to shut this down during this period partly due to numerous ups and downs, however I decided to keep it and probably blog as and when I feel like it again? So yes, I'm back alive and kicking again hopefully staying on and updating this space regularly (even if there are no readers).

Alright moving on and as you can see from my post title, I'll be sharing about my first trip of 2015. This was my third time there however slightly special this time as I decided to step out of taipei and new taipei to explore more. Will be touching on that at a later post as I went to taipei first instead of the usual norm which most others will do.

It was very easy for me to navigate around taipei since I've been there before. You can take kuo-kuang bus from taoyuan airport straight to taipei main station at a ticket price of $125 twd. Duration ranges between 45 minutes to an hour, depend on traffic flow.

Headed to ximending after I've alighted at taipei main station to check into our minsu. I was told to give the owner a call when I reached exit 6 and she will reach in a jiffy to pick me up and walk us over to her minsu.

Chose the Greek Romance theme room because that's my favourite among the rooms available + this is the only room that has bathtub which I didn't get to use due to cold weather. For booking and reservation, you can simply check out www.joggingbear.blogspot.sg and email the owners.

Settled our first meal at dazzling cafe kiwi, located at breeze center. For honey toast lovers, you'll be really glad that dazzling's gonna be opening in singapore very soon! Likewise me too, being another excited being because I no longer have to fly to taiwan to have this.

Wanna make a guess what did we do after which?

Tada, a view of taipei city from elephant mountain!

We definitely made a right choice to climb the mountain after a hearty meal, forgoing the amount of steps we climbed up just to get this magnificent view. It was not just 500 steps I'm saying alright, it was way more than that. Not simple easy stair steps either, they were stone-like steps and I thought I'd have fallen a few times.

Nevertheless, the beautiful sunset made it up to all the energy which I've drained.

Oh I think I forgot to mention that we flew there on the last day of 2014 and the intended plan was to head to the countdown concert party but......

We ended up in another cafe chilling, trying to connect to their wifi for umpteen times (because I think the connectivity somehow didn't work at certain point), and when it failed, we had to kill boredom by playing lame iphone games. Didn't want to head to the concert party as I've been there, done that two years back and surrendered after standing in the cold for an hour that we missed the fireworks.

While waiting with the crowd...... Don't belittle the crowd okay, this was just a teeny weeny bit of the major crazy huge crowd.

Despite long cold night waiting to catch the spectacular fireworks, I can now proudly say it's another tick off my bucket list and it's time to set my aim towards countdown at NYC! Who's up with me?!

Till then to the second part of taiwan~

Montigo

Here's my first july post dedicated to montigo bonding trip with the entire IIR division.

Initially, I had extremely mixed feelings for this trip as I do not know anyone from the north and east division and the fact that I'm relatively new as well doesn't make me feel very ease too. So we set off on last friday evening straight from office to tanah merah ferry terminal to batam!

Night view of montigo resort taken at the resort reception area.

Didn't manage to snap much pictures of the villa but it's mega huge! Spacious living room, bedroom, toilet and etc. The only con is probably it's so huge that it's a little scary for 3 people?

Yes and I forgot to mention that each villa has a private pool but I didn't have the time to soak and relax in the pool.

Complimentary breakfast the next morning and look at the amount of food we took which we were unable to finish :/

Fun colleagues of mine whom I stayed up with chilling, laughing and playing games the whole night at my villa! 

And here's my amazing race team which was grouped randomly. Okay wait, not exactly because emerson was the spy of my team and even wanted to sabotage me!

My first bonding trip with IIR colleagues was much better (and exhausting) than I've expected even though I didn't know anyone from other branches but glad that some of them are pretty friendly. Pre workshop and workshop up next week, well mixed feelings again because I will be meeting the entire RE not just my division.

Till then, goodnight all!

Bangkok 2014 (Part IV)

Hello folks, I've finally come down to the last part of this six days trip. Honestly, this is probably the first trip which I didn't take much pictures as I didn't really bother to since it's my 4th consecutive year that I visited bkk.

But still, I've to share some awesome cafes and restaurants I visited!

Roast was full house when we reached and had to wait for about 30 mins.

Drinks were being served pretty swiftly after we ordered!!

Snapped some visuals while waiting for the food :>

Pardon me again for not taking much food pictures over here as we were all famished by the time food came. I've to mention that the crab cake benedict which I had was fabulous (though rider's serves better ones) and I didn't get to try others so I won't comment but I'm pretty sure they enjoyed the meal as well.

Roast
251 Thong Lor 13 Alley
Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana


On the same exact day, we headed over to central world in the evening for desserts. I've always wanted to try since last year but couldn't find it at siam paragon so it's a must to have it this time.

Their signature shibuya honey toast was surprisingly awesome! I mean it's a highly raved dessert here and I didn't want to have high expectation to prevent disappointment but woah really, so good that the guys bought a second one on the same day, just imagine that?! For a guy like GJ who doesn't fancy sweet stuffs.

We also ordered the ferrero honey toast which was pretty nice as well but definitely not as awesome as the shibuya.

After You has several branches, so you probably can check it out at central world and siam paragon which are more convenient to get to!

This is the last one I'm gonna share for this trip.

This is one damn secluded place which we took damn long to find! We even walked into someone's house and almost got caught because we turned into the wrong alley. The worse part of that day was I had stomachache in the morning and was feeling extremely weak since I didn't have any food the entire morning till this.

As I've mentioned, my stomach was uneasy so I ordered their homemade muesli with fruits and nuts and I swear, it tasted like heaven!

And yes, they love their meals too!

This is one exquisite cafe in bangkok that you won't get to see in singapore because they actually grow some of the food ingredients and not purchasing from outside. However, there's a price to pay for this definitely which is to find out the right path to get there.

Karmakamet Diner
30/1 Sukhumit Soi 24

Till then, goodnight x! :>

Bangkok 2014 (Part III)

Not sure if you're guessing where this is, and yes how can you miss their chatuchak weekend market. Some people dislike going there as it's crazily hot but stuffs there are cheaper than any shopping places at town.

What I like most is their coconut ice-cream which I didn't take a picture using my dslr ):

We headed to the ninth cafe at chit lom area for dinner after a long shopping day at chatuchak and union mall. We had authentic thai food at last, from basil chicken rice to green curry to tom yum and pad thai!

Food was relatively good at this branch. Service and ambience were the thumbs up ones!

And this strawberry mille crepe is what my sis loves most at ninth cafe but I still think audrey's nicer!

Ninth Cafe
59/5 Soi Langsuan
Phleonchit road